This month I read…April 2017

This month was a good reading month! After my slow start during the beginning of 2017, I got serious and read some fantastic books this month!

I Love I Hate I Miss My Sister by Amélie Sarn, Y. Maudet was a short but powerful book. It tells the story of two sisters that live in France. Close in age, they choose different paths in terms of following their Muslim faith and their choices have lasting consequences. This book was translated from French and I just loves the style of writing. A friend passed this book onto me thinking I would love it and she was absolutely right. I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay is a book I picked up for myself awhile ago. It was the monthly pick of a book club that meets at the local book store and while I didn’t want to commit to the group, I was curious about their pick. Race, gender, politics…this book has it all. This book is a collection of essays that caused me to stop and and think a lot while I was reading. Gay writes with humor and voice that I enjoyed and appreciated, especially with the seriousness of some of the topics. I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Spare Parts by Joshua Davis was a book given to me in January. It was the local library’s first attempt at a community book club. It is a non-fiction true story of four teenage boys living in Arizona and their journey of winning a national underwater robotics competition. All four boys were undocumented and the book told their stories. It was an incredible way to put a real face to an issue that is a hot topic. The humanity Davis was able to bring to these four boys was refreshing. I do have to say that robotic competitions aren’t really my thing so I wasn’t highly interested in specifics of that part of the story. I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany is a book that I should be ashamed of not reading until this month. I consider myself a pretty big Harry Potter fan and the fact that I am just now getting to this book makes me feel like I need to do some kind of make up assignment to prove myself a worthy fan. This book was an incredible 8th book. It picks up from the epilogue of the 7th book, with Harry Potter’s son and his years at Hogwarts. All my favorite characters were in this book with cleverly written parts, making me want to reread the entire series again. I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay by J.K. Rowling was Christmas present from Joe. We had gone to see the movie and loved it! I will admit that this book was a little tricky to read because of the screenplay format but I loved the story just the same. Even though is was earlier in time, the story is set in the same “world” as the Harry Potter series. I was quite grateful I had seen the movie first because I think I would have had a hard time visualizing parts of the book with out it. I did give is 5 out of 5 stars.

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult is a book that I have been trying to get my hands on for awhile. I have read most of Picoult’s books and while there have been some that I haven’t enjoyed a whole lot, I absolutely loved this book. She takes on the issue of race and privilege head on in this book and does not ease up one bit. Ruth is a black labor and delivery nurse who is removed from caring for a baby and mother because they are white supremacists and don’t want Ruth anywhere near their baby. It is an obvious overt start to a book that explores the more subtle feelings of the characters as the book continues. I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.